Recently, Grandpa Sun Lin, who experienced the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, shared his story of Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Grandpa Sun is 94 years old. In October 1950, he just graduated from Shenyang Fourth Aviation School and went to the battlefield to resist US aggression and aid Korea with the Chinese Air Force. General Wang Haihai, the former commander of the PLA Air Force who passed away in August 2020, was the captain of the 1st Brigade of the 9th Regiment of the Air Force 3 Division, where Sun Lin was at. The "Wang Hai Brigade" led by Wang Hai fought more than 80 times with the US Air Force, known as the "World Ace", and shot down and damaged 29 enemy aircraft, becoming a veritable ace flying team. And Sun Lin is the "doctor" of these ace planes.
Grandpa Sun's Air Force unit is responsible for defending the Yalu River Bridge and the transportation line. As the equipment mechanic, he is responsible for the maintenance of 8 aircraft.
He recalled the scene of that year: "When I went to the aviation school to study, there was no plane, just a theory class. Later, a broken plane came to see it. The Soviet Union had 1 mechanic and 2 mechanics, and brought one of our mechanics. 2 mechanics, who took them on the battlefield for a few months. After we learned it, he handed the plane to us, and they left. It mainly depends on the later practical operation. "
The famous "Wang Hai Brigade" is named after the pilot Wang Hai. What legends does this brigade have?
In late October 1951, according to the unified deployment of the Volunteer Air Force, the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Division, 9th Regiment of the Air Force, led by the captain Wang Hai, shouldered the expectations of the party and the people of the motherland and flew to the Korean battlefield filled with gunpowder. The pilots of Brigade 1 are all from the Army. In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, although they fought bayonets and made military exploits with the enemy, they were still "primary school students" in flight technology. They have only been flying for dozens of hours in jet fighters, and they have never even hit a target in the air. In the battle on November 9th, the pilots of the 1st brigade and the enemy plane met unexpectedly. After a fight, they shot down an enemy fighter-bomber, and achieved a good start for the 1st brigade.
On November 18, the 1st brigade led by Wang Hai ushered in the fighter plane again. At about 2:00 p.m. that day, the front-line radars of the Volunteers spotted American planes, 184 planes in 9 batches, bombing and strafing our railway targets. At about 2:30, the 9th Regiment of the 3rd Air Division was ordered to take off 16 MiG-15 fighter jets to meet the enemy. Wang Hai also led the 6 fighter planes of the 1st brigade to the combat area. When the plane approached the Qingchuan River Bridge, he saw more than 50 planes in the low altitude dive bombing the bridge. With Wang Hai's order, the six planes of the Volunteer Army began to attack. Relying on the large number of planes, the enemy first surrounded Wang Hai and the others. In order to avoid being passively beaten, Wang Hai commanded several of his planes to rise quickly, break away from the encirclement of the enemy planes, and then dive down to fight. Wang Hai fired at the enemy aircraft at a distance of 500 meters and shot down an F-84. His wingman Jiao Jingwen covered the lead plane and shot down another F-84 that was preparing to attack Wang Hai. After that, the two worked closely together and shot down another enemy plane. In a short period of time, more than 60 enemy planes were violently attacked by 6 fighter planes of the 1st brigade, and they fled in panic. In the later stage, the "Wang Hai Brigade" shot down even more enemy planes.
The People's Air Force developed and expanded during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. By the end of 1953, it had grown to 28 divisions and 70 regiments, with more than 3,000 aircraft of various types, forming a strong air force composed of various aviation units. The People's Air Force also formed the famous "bayonet in the air" spirit on the battlefield to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, creating a miracle in the history of world air combat.